Pets as Personality Predictors?

As a rule, cats are more introverted and curious than their furry counterparts; dogs are considered more social and eager to please. But, what about their owners? Even the people who don’t own a pet may consider themselves either a “dog person” or a “cat person”. So, what does that mean?

A recent survey by psychologist Sam Gosling and a team of researchers at the University of Texas at Austin reports that people who self-identify as one or the other may say something about their personality. The team asked about 4,500 people if they considered themselves dog people or cat people, as part of a larger personality survey consisting of a 44-item assessment measuring them on five dimensions of personality thought to encompass the spectrum of personality types – Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Openness and Neuroticism.

Forty-six percent identified themselves as dog people, while 12 percent said they were cat people. Twenty-eight percent said they were both and 15 percent said they were neither.